Wall Street Journal
By Byron Tau
March 18, 2016
Sen.
Ted Cruz made a visit to the U.S.-Mexican border on Friday to criticize
the state of border security and to make the case that he, not Donald
Trump, is the best candidate to tackle illegal
immigration.
Standing at a low-slung barrier, Mr. Cruz said that “my 5-year-old could climb this in about 3 seconds.”
Mr.
Cruz said Mr. Trump has supported “open-border Democrats” in the past.
Opposition to illegal immigration has helped propel Mr. Trump to
front-runner in the Republican presidential campaign.
The
March 22 Arizona winner-take-all primary, where 58 delegates are at
stake, is Mr. Cruz’s best shot to blunt Mr. Trump’s growing momentum.
Utah also votes the same day, and Mr. Cruz is
headed to Provo and Draper this weekend for a campaign swing.
Ohio
Gov. John Kasich, whose more moderate position on immigration makes
Arizona a tougher target, is focusing more on Utah’s caucuses.
The
two Western contests are also the first Republican votes since Sen.
Marco Rubio left the presidential race after losing his home state of
Florida to Mr. Trump last week. After Arizona
and Utah, the contest moves to Northern states that are considered less
hospitable to Mr. Cruz.
Arizona—ground
zero in the contentious national debate over how to deal with the
illegal immigrants living in the U.S.—is fertile ground for a fight
between Messrs. Trump and Cruz over immigration
policy. The state was the site of the 2010 fight over SB 1070, a bill
allowing local police to enforce immigration law that was partially
invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012.
Mr.
Trump has also been endorsed by two popular figures in the state known
for their tough stance against illegal immigration, former GOP Gov. Jan
Brewer and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Mr.
Cruz on Friday visited near the site where an American rancher was
killed under mysterious circumstances. Authorities believe Robert Krentz
was killed in 2010 by an illegal immigrant
or drug traffickers. His death on his own ranch along the border has
become a rallying cry for proponents of stricter border security and a
crackdown on the flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S.
Mr.
Cruz toured the border with former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who has
endorsed him, and Steve Ronnebeck, an Arizona man whose son was
allegedly killed by an illegal immigrant last year.
Mr.
Cruz has long called for additional border security, including a wall
and extra border patrol agents. A standard applause line at his rallies
is his vow to end so-called sanctuary cities—municipalities
that tolerate illegal immigration or refuse to cooperate with federal
immigration authorities.
But
Mr. Trump has dominated on the issue. His signature policy position is
to build a border wall and make the Mexican government pay for it. He
has also called illegal immigrants “rapists”
and “criminals,” and proposed the mass deportation of the roughly 12
million illegal immigrants currently in the U.S.
The
only recent poll of Arizona shows Mr. Trump with a comfortable but not
insurmountable lead in the state. The Phoenix-based Westgroup Research
poll from March finds Mr. Trump in the lead
with 31% of the vote to Mr. Cruz’s 19% of the vote. The poll was
conducted before Mr. Rubio bowed out of the presidential race.
He and
Mr. Kasich each drew 10%.
Mr. Trump is scheduled to campaign in Arizona on Saturday with an event in Fountain Hills.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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